User blog:DarkClaw3/Big Hero 6: The Series Review
If you ask me, so far, TV Animation has been a blaze this year. From ongoing series' that have been accelerating to new heights (such as Friendship is Magic, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, OK K.O.! Let's be Heroes, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, etc), to new series' that have grabbed my attention (like the ridiculously adorable and heartfelt Big City Greens, the Ed, Edd and Eddy spiritual successor, Craig of the Creek, the out-of-nowhere gem that is The Legend of the Three Caballeros, etc) and many cartoons I have just now gotten into (Tangled: The Series and Trollhunters being very good examples). I honestly haven't been this invested in television animation in years, and it feels good to have that child-like sense of wonder and be desperately waiting for new episodes once more. I might talk about all the aforementioned shows when I have the time, but, for now, I'd like to focus on one in particular. As you may have guessed, that one, particular show is Big Hero 6: The Series. Disney has had a history of turning it's famous animated movies into shows once they prove popular enough. Aladdin had one, The Little Mermaid had one, Timone and Pumba from The Lion King had one, Hercules had one, Tarzan had one, 101 Dalmatians had one—generally, any movie that could make Disney a buck had it's own animated series back in the 90's and early 2000's. However, the quality of these shows...varied, to say the least; at best, they were usually decent with quite a few noticeable flaws (like the occasionally stiff animation of Aladdin or Hercules` glaring continuity errors), and, at worst, they were totally forgettable (did you even know that 101 Dalmatians had a show? I didn't). Disney soon dropped this trend of their's later on in the aforementioned 2000's when their movies began to turn out less successful than what they had been (but really, did you want a Home on the Range cartoon series?), with them even reworking some produced episodes from the failed Beauty and the Beast and Atlantis: The Lost Empire series' into crappy straight-to-DVD sequels. As of late, Disney has returned to this trend, starting off rough with the horrible inept Dora the Explorer-inspired adventures of Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and then deciding to actually try with The Lion Guard, which has gotten better over time, especially now that Scar is that main antagonist once again, and, oh yeah, Tangled: The Series; something I never saw coming yet have now totally gotten into. This mindset of adapting animated movies into shows, of course, has transitioned into Big Hero 6: The Series. Now, the Big Hero 6 film was definitely one of the more unique ones Disney has done, with it not only being a superhero flick but and adaptation of a relatively unpopular team from Marvel Comics as well. Its a film unique among others in that it truly puts more focus on heart and relationships over the superhero aspect, with Hiro forced to healthily deal with heartbreaking loss and pain while faced with an evil man driven by similar losses at the same time throughout the entirety of the film. However, with the superhero story put to the side, there is a lot of potential shown that was lost in the final product. Most of the supporting cast was not done true justice, the villain's motivations were done well yet his personality was lacking, the high-tech Asian-American environment of San Fransokyo had more to be shown, etc. Thankfully, the series follows up on this untapped potential, and sees the team through new adventures, new challenges, and new enemies, while also better exploring them as characters and heroes. I'd cover the series as a whole, but I think its best to look at the episodes individually while analyzing it's particular features as we go along. Episodes "Baymax Returns" The series' hour-long pilot episode starts up directly after the movie, with Hiro deciding to attend the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology (or SFIT), discovering Baymax's healthcare chip and deciding to rebuild him. Meanwhile, Fred tries to push the gang back into superheroics despite their clear reluctance to resume crime fighting, especially when it appears unneeded. However, after stopping Mr. Yama from stealing a powerful sculpture for his mysterious employer, the team decides to band together as the superhero team Big Hero 6. First off, this episode is a fun one. There's quite a bit of action for a pilot episode, which all showcase the abilities of the heroes decently, maybe even a little better that the movie in some cases (a prime example being Hiro actually using his suit for something more than piggybacking on Baymax) and a lot of humor show too (the gang trying to stop a "car thief", Granville awkwardly attempting to console Hiro, and most of Yama's scenes being some of the funniest moments in the episode). The establishment of series' tone is thus done quite well, as it puts more focus on comedy and action than anything, while also leaving enough room for character growth and interaction. Speaking of which, the characters are, as they were in the film, likable and lovable—with the kid genius Hiro, the tomboyish and serious GoGo, neat-freak Wasabi, the positive and positively adorable Honey Lemon, rich superhero fanatic and slacker Fred, and, of course, Baymax, who's just as endearing as ever. All of the main cast members have a moment to shine, as well as enough screentime for you to get the idea of who they are without needing to watch the film. Yama, too, is a good and entertaining villain for the start of the series, who's portrayed as more blundering and incompetent here than in the film, yet is still pretty fun to watch. There's also the new character introduced in this episode, Professor Granville; the new Dean of SFIT following Callaghan's arrest, whom I really got to like. She is well established as a stern yet caring mentor for Hiro who has her own little mysteries to explore as the series goes on, although there is some sloppiness in her going out of her way to teach Hiro that he has to earn his privileges only to immediately give him Tadashi's lab to work in anyways. And there's also Obake, who get's his "mysterious shadowy villain" introduction done justice. Of course, this episode isn't perfect. I feel that the characters and their abilities really could've been reintroduced to the audience better, as it relies too heavily on the idea that you have seen the movie recently and have memorized who's who and what they can do. As I said, the introductions are handled decently, but you'll miss a lot if you haven't seen the film (like why the characters have their powers, Heathcliff, who Callaghan is, etc) which is a major misstep in any adaptation. Speaking of characters, Fred really did tend to get on my nerves a little here, with him being too pushy and too obnoxiously stupid at points. There are quite a few minor continuity errors with the first film too, but that doesn't really detract from the actual episode as a whole. Overall, this was a good episode, yet could've been a better starting point for the series. Final Rating: 7/10 "Issue 188" Honestly, when I picture the kind of antics the Big Hero 6 gang could get into if they had their own TV series, episodes like this are what come to mind; a fun, wacky romp that displays lovable character interactions while poking fun at the cliches of superhero lore. This episode also formally introduces the series' main episodic formula; Hiro or one of his friends tries to learn how to deal with a personal issue or a problem at school, while, at the same time, Big Hero 6 has to deal with a villain (or villains, in this case) that exemplifies the issue introduced in the A plot. Its a standard formula, but one that works well for this kind of series. Speaking of which, the A plot centers around Hiro dealing with a problem at school; that being forced to hang out with fellow young genius Karmi for the week and write a report on their experience. However, the problem is that Karmi couldn't care less about Hiro or his interests...yet, at the same time, she is madly in love with his superhero identity and of course can't recognize Hiro in his costume. Now, Karmi is quite the interesting character. She's cold, reclusive, and despises Hiro for taking away the one thing that made her special at SFIT, yet, at the same time, she hides a more tender side. She treats the microbes she experiments with like her own children, tries her best to hide her crush on Hiro's superhero form, and uses her rough edges to conceal her blatant social awkwardness. She's a regular gruff love interest, something akin to a stalker-ish Lois Lane infused with Honey Lemon's love of mad science, and her uneasy relationship with Hiro and Baymax pumps out a few laughs while making you feel just a little sorry for her. Naturally, all this makes it pretty difficult for Hiro to make any sort of connection with Karmi and makes him ponder why Granville had the two of them hang out, until he realizes that, of course, she was actually trying to get her to socialize more, not him. The episode then delivers an interesting statement about how people only see what they want to see in others based on (thus calling back to the whole superhero identity thing), and has Hiro forming a bond with Karmi, although this leads her to believe, ironically, that he has a crush on her. Now, this plot is fun and cute and all, with a good look into a new character as well as some good showcasing of Professor Granville's firm but still insightful teachings (Have fun. MANDATORY fun.), but the ball is really dropped in terms of what Hiro actually did for Karmi. I mean, he lied on his report, which made Karmi sort of respect him because he was nice enough not to rat her out I guess, but Hiro doesn't actually make a decent impact on her or help her become more open and social like Granville wanted—she doesn't even really take up his offer of friendship given their interactions in later episodes—so the entirety of this plot builds up to really nothing outside of introducing Karmi. Creating a payoff for this story would be as simple as showing Karmi talk to some other students because of Hiro's openness, but I guess just having the two being mostly the same is fine too. The episode's B plot centers around Big Hero 6 being ousted by the new villains High Voltage and Fred and GoGo trying to use the elusive comic Captain Fancy #188 to learn how to beat them. As a comic book geek myself, this sub-plot really strikes with me, mostly because of how much I relate to Fred and how he interacts with his friends here; I can't deny that I would act mostly the same in his position, referencing comics as much as possible and whatnot. Fred and GoGo's interactions in this episode are also just perfect. If there is any relationships between the characters that need to be displayed more, its definitely this one. Fred's obnoxiousness and childishness clashes perfectly with GoGo's toughness and general badassery, and they thus spawn the best moments of the episode. Also, in spite of them being "friends", its shown pretty clearly that Fred's antics annoy GoGo to the point where she totally obliterates a whack-a-mole game themed around him. Then there's the main antagonists of the episode, Barb and Juniper, aka High Voltage. Imagine if Aftershock and Electro's mother-in-law formed a crappy j-pop duo. That's High Voltage in a nutshell. They're certainly unique, even among this series' already wacky cast of villains; basically turning everywhere they go into a musical number with the citizens of San Fransokyo are reduced to hapless extras, unaware that they are being robbed blind. They're fun, but sadly I doubt we'll see them again. There's also another less prominent yet still devious antagonist in the form of Richardson Mole—Fred's eleven-year old rival, who is somehow more mature yet still just as childish as Fred himself. He's certainly more suave and socially adjusted than Fred is, yet he's still prone to the same obsessive mannerisms, has an entire underground lair dedicated to his hatred of Fred, and has a rather forward and creepy crush on GoGo to boot. There's not much to him, but he isn't exactly worth ignoring. Oh yeah, and this episode reveals that Obake's face glows for some reason. Nothing to really make of that at this point. He just glows. Final Rating: 7.5/10 "Big Roommates 2" An episode centered around GoGo and Honey Lemon? Sign me up. :) In all seriousness, this is a fairly charming one. It centers around Honey Lemon being forced to move out of her apartment and into GoGo's house, although the two of them find that their personalities and different lifestyles clash far more than they could expect, endangering their relationship. Now, I'm a big fan of these two (who isn't, really) so I'm obviously for any episode that puts them in the spotlight. And this episode does just that. We get an inside look at the different extremes of their glass-half-full and glass-half-empty perspectives on life, so much so that they constantly squabble due to how their life views counteract one another. However, the two come to terms when GoGo effectively gets a taste of her own medicine in seeing Honey Lemon become negative and moody while she has to step up and become more positive. This episode ends up delivering a rather insightful look at the importance of general and sometimes unrealistic positivity within individuals and groups, while also acknowledging the necessity of a more realistic and possibly grimmer perspective as well. Neither Honey Lemon or GoGo are really portrayed as totally in the wrong throughout the episode, because their world views have different extremes that cause different results, like GoGo throwing off Honey Lemon's yoga with hard exercise or Honey Lemon annoying GoGo by slapping all of her stuff with adorable stickers. Yet the both of them are able to come to a compromise by the end in order to work and live together, as positivity and negativity need to balance in all people. I really like that sort of thing. It may not have been the intention, but I like it. But the real star of the show here is the episode's antagonist; incompetent thief turned incompetent supervillain Globby. He's deliberately annoying, remarkably stupid and can't seem to get anything right, and yet you really can't help but feel sorry for him at the same time because he's just such a sympathetic loser. Even when he gets powers he is equally pathetic because he still has no idea what he's doing. He's a character any of us can get behind—someone who nobody believes in or supports who's out to make it big just so he can show everyone that they were wrong about him. Plus, Andrew Ritcher's voice encompasses this dork just perfectly. Another amusing character introduced here is the down-to-earth Felony Carl, who combines thuggish looks with a remarkably mellow and insightful look on life. His appearances are short and sweet, but he might just be the best side character in the whole show if you ask me. Final Rating: 8/10 "Fred's Bro-Tillion" Fred's yearly Bro-Tillion, a party in his honor, comes around, and he needs to rely on his friends' help in order to make sure it is a success and impresses the snobbish Binky Mole. However, steampunk supervillain Baron Von Steamer crashes the party looking for revenge on Fred's superhero father, mistakenly kidnapping Wasabi in the process and forcing Fred to face his fears. "Food Fight" "Muirahara Woods" Hiro and Fred get curious as to where GoGo goes to be alone, and follow her to the mysterious Muirahara Woods, where, after getting lost, all their tech begins to mysteriously fail, Baymax included. They also discover crazed anti-tech Hermit Ned Ludd, who, after deciding to destroy Baymax, inspires the gang to fight without using their gear. "Failure Mode" Hiro struggles to deal with failing a school project, as Globby returns to steal a famous painting, and discovers that he can morph his body into virtually any form of matter at the same time. Meanwhile, Honey Lemon attempts to teach Baymax how to appreciate art. The subplot of Honey Lemon trying to teach Baymax to value of art is also just as funny and adorable as you would expect. "Aunt Cass Goes Out" There's no better word to describe this one than hilarious. We've all had at least one relationship in our family that we did not support, so it's understandable to believe that Hiro would not be entirely comfortable with his aunt dating...especially considering that this episode focuses on a pairing forged in Hiro's worst nightmare; Aunt Cass and corporate scumbag Alistair Krei. Y'know, I swear I read about this sort of thing in a fanfic once... "The Impatient Patient" "Mr. Sparkle Looses His Sparkle" "Killer App" "Small Hiro One" "Kentucky Kaiju" Category:Blog posts